This blog is about my personal collection of Absolute Edition Comics, especially those from my favorite authors, the big "M"s : Pat Mills, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola and Joss Whedon (because after all a W is nothing more than a M upside down).

bannière

3/20/2011

Sin City The Frank Miller Library Edition Set II

This set is one of the second print dated June 2009 (first print in May 2006) published by Dark Horse (ISBN: 978-1-59307-422-0, 12 x 9 inches or 32 x 21 cm, cover price $150, 736 pages for the all set). by Dark Horse It comes with 4 faux leather hardcovers in a black slipcase, comprising the last 3 stories published to date, and an extensive art book. The thickness of the paper is impressive (quite like bristol paper for the reprinted covers).

All four hardcovers shares the same second and third of cover (different from set I). There is no introduction, nor extra section for volume five to seven. This set was again designed by Gary Grazzini, and edited by Diana Schutz (and again printed and bound in China).

In this article I will only try to pinpoint differences between the original publication in comic form and this library edition. I don't own all of the many trade reprints, or special edition of each story that got extra material on their own.

Now let's begin with Volume Five related to Family Values that was published as a one shot trade paperback originally (the associated cover is of course included).

illustration taken from the back cover of the original comic

this illustration is not featured in my copy of the original paperback

Volume Six , Booze, Broads, and Bullets, collects all eleven Sin City short stories published from 1994 to 1998, but in its own chronology:

These stories have first been collected in five comics in the Sin City's series:

The Babe Wore Red and Other Stories (November 1994):

And Behind Door Number Three... (4 pages)

The Customer Is Always Right (3 pages)

The Babe Wore Red (23 pages, originally serialized in Previews)

Silent Night (November 1995)

Silent Night (25 pages)

Lost, Lonely, Lethal (December 1996)

Fat Man and Little Boy (3 pages, first published in San Diego Comic Con Comics #4 in July 1996)

Blue Eyes (14 pages)

Rats (7 pages)

Sex & Violence (March 1997)

Wrong Turn (23 pages)

Wrong Track (3 pages)

Just Another Saturday Night (October 1998)

Just Another Saturday Night (17 pages)

There is also the short story Daddy's Little Girl (8 pages), previously published in A Decade of Dark Horse #1 and included in the regular Booze, Broads, and Bullets trade.

the wraparound cover of A Decade of Dark Horse #1 (back cover end is not reproduced in the library edition)

The books begins with Just Another Saturday Night (published in comic form by dark Horse in 1998), that was originally published in Sin City #1/2 (August 1997), a limited mail-in comic available only through a special offer in Wizard #73.

illustration on the left was not in the original comic

This library edition reprint doesn't feature the illustration of the back cover of the original comic, but finishes with the back cover of Sex & Violence comic instead.

back cover of the original comic not reprinted

left, back cover for Sex & Violence

Then, we move to Fat Man and Little Boy, a three page story published in San Diego Comic Con #4 (1995). That story was first collect in Lost, Lonely, Lethal (1996). Notice that this library edition reprints another page before this story about the San Diego Convention itself, not included in Lost, Lonely, Lethal.

Then we have The Customer is Always Right from The Babe Wore Red and Other Stories, preceded by an illustration not included in my Sin City comic series.

left, unsourced illustration

Silent Night follows, again preceded by an illustration not included in my floppies collection, a Marv head-shot saying "Be Good", echoing another illustration used in this library edition of Marv saying "You Being Good Yet?"printed on the back of the cover just below. Notice that the back cover of the original Silent Night comic is not reprinted here.

back cover of the original comic not reprinted

Without transition we move to And Behind Door Number Three.. (see above) from The Babe Wore Red and Other Stories, before the Blue Eyes story from Lost, Lonely, Lethal.

Right behind this cover, and before Blue Eyes, we have these two illustrations from the back cover of Lost, Lonely, Lethal (to the left), and the back cover of Hell and Back #4 (to the right)

Again unsourced illustrations are used before and after the story Rats is reprinted.

to the left, unsourced illustration, to the right cover of A Decade of Dark Horse #1

Daddy's Little Girl story originally published in A Decade of Dark Horse #1 is preceded by an unsourced illustration.

Next, we have both stories, Wrong Turn and Wrong Track from the Sex & Violence comic.

At this point, The Babe Wore Red story is reprinted preceded by an unsourced illustration used for the book cover, and two more before the story begins.

unsourced illustrations

And the book ends with the opening page of Lost, Lonely, Lethal.

The tree tributes from Lost, Lonely,Lethal (Barry Windsor-Smith and Dave Gibbons), and Sex & Violence (Bill Sienkiewicz) are reprinted in The Art of Sin City volume.

Volume Seven is the biggest one on this set, and it collects all nine issues of Hell and Back.

illustration taken from the back cover of issue #9

The back cover from issue #2 is included in this set in "red" form.

original back cover from issue #2

Back cover from issue #7 is included in this set:

original back cover from issue #7

left, back cover from issue #8

Back cover from issue #9 is used as cover from this book and is also reprinted in the end of the story.

original back cover from issue #9

This volume ends with the illustration used as back cover for issue #6:

This are the three back covers that were not included in this second set (back cover from issue #4 is reprinted in Volume Six):

original back cover from issue #1

original back cover from issue #3

original back cover from issue #5

And we end this article with Volume Eight, The Art of Sin City.

In The Art of Sin City, there is a lot of isolated drawings taken from the comics published in previous volumes, but rather few sketches of Miller (this may be the only flaw of this edition). Content of this volume is quite identical to the original 2002 Art of Sin City hardcover. But in this set, there is also an extra tribute section (29 pages, but not exclusive material as these tributes have been previously published in individual issues of the original series). In this other article I have pinpointed the differences between this reprint and the original 2002 Art of Sin City hardcover, and this article displayed many pictures from content identical to this volume.

my copy of the original 2002 hardcover features a different signed opening page

from here the extra tribute section begins and is exclusive to this reprint